The number of oddly fascinating items one can find at the New York State are amazing.  Historic baseballs, weird advertising items, nostalgic trains, the huge Cohoes Mastodon (wow), history of our immigrant past, and, yes, even an exploding guitar.  And that, my friends, would have been worth the price of admission to see back in 1920.

The New York State Museum in Albany is the largest and oldest state museum in the United States (1836).  It is located at one end of the beautiful Empire State Plaza (its modern edifice facing the venerable old New York State Capitol on the other end).  Admission is free, and thousands of visitors pass through the turnstiles every year to take advantage of maybe the "best deal" in the Empire State.

Of special note is a large section of the museum dedicated to the memory of that fateful day, September 11, 2001.  The collection of artifacts on display in the museum comprise the largest and most comprehensive 9/11 collection anywhere.  To visit this section of the museum can be a heart-stopping, sobering experience you won't soon forget.

And then.....what about the exploding guitar?  On the fun side, this item just can't be beat.  It dates back to a vaudevillian in the 1920s named Joe Cook.  You will see the story about his act in this gallery.  Funny guy, funny story.

There are so many (thousands) if items from the museum that we would like to share, that this will be just the first of several more galleries in the future that will highlight the amazing (and odd) treasures found at the New York state Museum.

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The rarest military medal in the U.S. (given only once). The story of the "Newspaper Weight King" of Upstate New York. A vintage Lion costume from The Wizard of Oz. Who remembers "Grasshopper Shoes" from the 1950s? Or the most famous "Exploding Guitar" in music history.

In this writer's opinion The New York State Museum in Albany is without a doubt the best historic museum in the state. With an uncountable number of items in its collection, one could easily spend a couple of days visiting here (and it is free!). Topics range from the dinosaurs and wooly mammoths that crawled our state in the Ice Age, all the way up to the largest and most comprehensive exhibit about the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. And there is a lot of fun stuff along the way. Check out this list for some great and weird surprises you can find at this treasure in our state's capital.

As you peruse this list of 25 of (maybe) the most interesting things in the museum, you might say to yourself "Wait, it is just an old cup," or "OK, so we all had little Kewpie Dolls," and what's the big deal? You will see that they (and all of the others) have fantastic back stories to them and all indeed really were big deals.

With tens of thousands of items to choose from, this writer really likes these 25. I mean, really likes them!

Gallery Credit: Chuck D'Imperio

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Gallery Credit: Chuck D'Imperio

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